Septum piercings

The septum piercing today seems as popular as the belly piercing used to be back in the late 90's. Suddenly you see it everywhere, fake and real. Lady gaga is wearing one, as is Rhianna. Each celebrity responsible to make extreme the new mainstream. Now it is a world wide fashion but lets not forget the roots of it. And I am not referring to the punk scene.

The septum piercing is actually the second most common piercing among primitive tribes after the ear piercing. You can trace its history to Native American Indians, Indians, Bengalis as well as African tribes but probably most known for their septum piercings are the Kangi tribes of New Guinea. There to have the septum pierced by a pig's tusk is part of a boys journey towards adulthood, their initiation. In Bangladesh on the other hand its mainly women wearing the septum as a sign of being married and its made out of gold.

The septum is also referred to as The Bull's ring piercing as it was sometimes used to break bulls for the farm life. But it does not only need to be rings worn as septum piercings. The Asmat tribe of Irian Jaya used to wear a septum jewelry called "Otsj," which were large and thick bone plugs.

However what i find most interesting, is the Australian aboriginals, who wore it to flatten their noses as flat noses in their eyes were the most desirable.